Again, Rachel: The love story of the summer (Walsh Family, 6)

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To Baam) " Don't be ridiculous!! Why would you do such a thing?! Do you think you are some kind of hero?! Stop trying to show off!! You are talking about a world that has nothing to do with you!! Just give up!! Stay in that place and wait for me like before!! It's mine!! For ages I have!!" [43] Osman credits his mother, Brenda, for giving him and his brother, Mat (the bass guitarist in Suede), the freedom to do what they wanted growing up: she never made them go to classes or play the piano, or pushed them to go to university – “Obviously she’d have been furious if we hadn’t”. Instead “she was bright enough to let me sit and watch TV,” he says. “You have to let your kids be whatever it is they are and my mum worked that out many years before the self-help books.” There are steamy sex scenes in Again, Rachel just as there are in her other novels. It’s interesting to read because it’s not young love; it’s about women who are over 40 and their experiences. Keyes says: “I loved writing the one scene [read the book!]. There has to be an emotional connection as well, and the reason they were not together was complicated. So there had to be more than sex, but the sex was nice. It’s okay to be a female over 40 and wanting to having sex. It’s down to the individual but I really sympathise with women who think, ‘Gawd, I have to have sex with my husband tonight’. I’m going to hide this whole review behind the spoiler filter so recommend stopping here if you are planning on reading this book - although the big reveal about half-way through is heavily sign-posted so not a surprise, and neither is the ending. But the craic notwithstanding, these writers have more than whopping sales figures in common: Keyes was an alcoholic; Osman suffers from food addiction. As he says, “You are either controlling it or not controlling it.” There hasn’t been a day Osman hasn’t battled with food since he was nine (no surprise, the time his father left), around the same age that Keyes just knew “something was wrong, something was broken. Something needed painkilling.” At first it was sugar for her too, then books. They both mainlined Enid Blyton for a while. “But then alcohol was the big one,” she says. “The drug of choice. It was the thing that helped me cross over from feeling like a defective human being to being able to pass myself off as normal. But it was a problem immediately because I always wanted more.”

I enjoyed writing the camaraderie of the group and the way different personalities impacted on Rachel when she was there. Rehab, to me, was a challenging and frightening experience, but it was also kind of lovely. It wasn’t only that it gave me new life, there was something about the humanity and the way people bonded that was soul filling. People come in at their worst but there’s so much of them being their best as well. I wanted to reflect that again, and the fact that Rachel is an unreliable narrator. “I got a lot from writing this book — the joy of writing about rehab again. The potpourri of individuals at the worst time of their lives thrown into this common humanity where they help each other to get well, even if it is accidental.”Publishes fiction debut The Thursday Murder Club, currently being adapted into a film by Steven Spielberg’s production company, Amblin Entertainment.

When Marian Keyes announced she had written a sequel to her 1997 smash hit novel, Rachel’s Holiday, social media went into overdrive. Rachel’s Holiday – which sold more than 1.5m copies and spawned generations of devotees to Keyes’s writing – was a cultural phenomenon, following protagonist Rachel Walsh as she struggled to come to terms with drug and alcohol addiction during a spell in a Dublin rehab clinic, the Cloisters. Let’s not wait 50 years to reassess funny female writers ever again,” chips in Osman, citing the example of the 1950s comic novelist Barbara Pym. “You had to wait years before people went ‘Oh actually … ” And thank goodness, because 50 years ago we’d still be waiting for… ” For instance Rachel identifies a lifetime struggle with low self-esteem and feelings of unworthines as an obstacle in her life journey. But she does not link that with her acceptance of the identity 'once an addict, always an addict' and her belief that she is not one of the 'normal' people. She also self flagellates in a way by refusing the benefits of much of modern medicine in case might trigger a relapse. Even when in real need and when recommended by her doctor. The story is dark and painful in parts, but is lit up with Keyes’s wit and a truly compelling romantic hero, Luke Costello – for my money, the sexiest man in literature. Rachel teaching the meaning of "fight" to Baam) " And then - would you fight that person? For me?" [25]With her unmanageable impatience and robust opinions, life was often difficult for her. For every person she enchanted, there were about ten more who became instant enemies. And the thing was, Helen would speak unpalatable truths when everyone else was too scared to open their mouths. The world needed more Helens” Publishes her first book, Watermelon, about a woman who is abandoned by her husband after giving birth to their child; it is a runaway success. Marries Tony Baines (above); the following year quits her accounting job and the pair move to Ireland. To Androssi Zahard) " Pff!! I'm surprised. You being jealous of me? You already have a lot of the stuff that I want, Endorsi. How could someone like you be jealous of me? This is such a strange feelings and what exactly do I have? Beauty, power, plus you are a Princess. Like a heroine in a fairy tale. I just wish I had been born like that too. We have both had somebody's blood on our hands to climb the Tower, but I'm a nasty bitch and you are a beautiful, cool-headed Princess. And you are forgiven for everything. Isn't that right? Ahh, it must be nice. Being pretty, I mean. I would love you too if I were Baam. I can't understand why Baam follows someone like me around, you know? That bothers you too, doesn't it?" [45]

Again, Rachel finds Rachel in her mid-forties, living in Ireland, sober and successful. The Keyes fandom will be delighted to hear that the Walsh women – Rachel’s sisters Claire, Margaret, Helen and Anna – are all doing well, and helping Mammy Walsh to plan her own “surprise” 80th birthday party in meticulous detail. Rachel telling Baam about what's above "the cave") " Baam, I told you. Up there, it's a world where only those who have been chosen can play. I'm sorry Baam. I want to take you too. But... I just can't..." [30] Growing up – Osman in West Sussex, Keyes in Dublin – it was all about the television. (When he is reading, Osman says, he can always spot the writers who didn’t watch TV as kids.) For Keyes, “TV was how we bonded, it was the time we spent together. We didn’t go on middle-class rambly walks,” she says, swinging her arms. “We never went out to the garden because the lead for the telly didn’t stretch that far. We would go to my granny’s house for a week, there’s wasn’t a telly and we were a bit anxious.” I like numbers very much,” replies the king of teatime trivia, modestly. “But at the heart of it, I’m proud of the books. So the numbers to me just said: ‘Well this is a thrill.’ It must be the same for you. You’d always sold a lot of copies, but you went through a bit when everyone was saying, ‘You know what? This is actually brilliant literature.’ Suddenly you were elevated,” he says. “You became a super-brand.” You can’t go round telling women they’re good at stuff – they’ll get ideas above their station! Marian Keyeshttps://web.archive.org/web/20160209060949/http://forums.mangafox.me/threads/368522-Additional-information-about-TOG-from-the-author-Spoiler The people who care about addicts have it very hard. So much of their time they’re plagued by suspicion, fear, thwarted hope, frustration, anger, and then, when they’ve finally convinced their loved one to get help, they usually feel terrible guilt.” In Again, Rachel, we find her, decades on, still sober and now head counsellor at the very rehab centre where she found sobriety all those years ago. Her life, on paper, seems perfect. A great job, a nice house, a sensible hobby (gardening) and a ridey boyfriend with prospects. Make them practise yelling, ‘SURPRISE!’… My sisters, but especially Imelda and Philomena, won’t want to, and some of the cousins are right bitches too, but tell them there’ll be no goody bag for them if they don’t.” She continues: “I gave myself a couple of months and if I failed, or it was half-baked, not good enough or faithful to the original, then I would walk away, no matter how painful.”

To Ha Yura) " You just don't get this!! You have spent your whole life being fawned over by other people because of that pretty face of yours. So don't act like you understand. It's not fair! I want to go.. I want to go.. I want to leave.. Arlene.." [46]Thanks is extended to Penguin Books Australia/Tandem Global Collective for providing a free copy of this book for review purposes. To Baam) " That's right!! You would never be able to understand me!! You have everything! A strong body, mind , and even the destiny to have been chosen for everything! That's why you are different from me!! You will never, ever understand me!! So what if I killed Khun!? I competed fair and square just like everyone else!! You will never feel desperate!! That's why you can act like you have friends!! You don't know how desperate I feel!!" [47]